Well, up until now, I have known what it's like to be a parent and bond with my child, laugh with my child, teach him animal noises, help him throw a ball, help him kick a soccer ball, drive trucks through the sand and blow bubbles. We've enjoyed playtime in the bathtub, watching Baby Einstein and reading funny little books. But little could prepare me for what happened last night. Now, I can honestly say, I've seen the other side of parenting.
Last night, at dinner, my son decided to stick cooked macaroni and cheese up his nose. And we aren't talking small pieces either. No, instead, we are talking about mac & cheese in the shape of cars, trophies and race flags.
Yes, it was a NASCAR macaroni & cheese dinner. He's sitting there eating one minute and the next, I notice he has juice on his arm. How I went from a juiced arm to "oh, my, goodness, I think he has something stuck up his nose", we'll never know. Moms just know these things. And sure enough, there it was. We were able to get one side clear using blunt tweezers. It was quick, no hassle and it was done. I saved the piece of mac. It will go in the scrap book. We've taken pictures, we've even measured it. We thought it was over. We were wrong.
Daddy goes out to mow the yard. Sterling is watching his TV and everything is fine. Well, except for the fact that mommie now has massive stomach cramps and is having a "sour stomach" as our sweet Brenda K would say. I should have heeded the warning. For some reason, and here's the mommie intuition again, I decided to go check on my son. He's in the floor, watching TV and making train noises. All seems fine. But mommie decided to check the nose again anyway. And there it is. Another piece of macaroni, in the other nostril. He's breathing is fine. It doesn't seem to bother him so we'll try blowing the nose and seeing if it will come out. Yea, right. Try getting a
19 month old to blow their nose. So, I try the tweezers. I get a piece of it. It is noodles after all, so it's breaking off. So, we decide to take a bath. Maybe the steam will help. It seems to move a little, so we try the tweezers again. And again, a small piece breaks off. We can see the rest of it in the nose, it's right there, but we just can't seem to get it. We try pepper, to make him sneeze. That didn't work. We try the snot sucker. That didn't work. We tried covering one nostril and blowing into his mouth to blow it out the other nostril. Nope, that didn't do it. And yes we even tried using a straw to suck it out. Notta. We read 3 books and all of them said, don't let them go to sleep with something stuck in their noses. Don' t let them lay down. It could hamper their breathing, it could go into their lungs".
So at about 2130 (that's 9:30 p.m. for you civilians), we head to the Charlton ER. We were there till 0300 hours (3:00 a.m.). At one point, he decides to start sneezing...guess the saline solution finally kicked in. Oh, yea, we tried that too. Putting saline in his nose to loosen it up and make him sneeze. After about a handful of sneezes, out pops the other piece of mac. It's a good size one as well. But Daddy thinks he still sees some up there and whether we liked the idea or not, we still needed them to look in there and make sure there weren't little pieces still stuck up in there. So, we waited. And waited. And waited. Sterling passes out (falls asleep) and is having a good nap. I have him up on my shoulder, just in case. Don't want to hamper his breathing, but he doesn't seem to be having problems breathing.
Heck he wasn't even having problems when it was up there. But we have to be sure.
We finally get to go to an ER room, where we wait. They finally come in and look and sure enough, he's got some more in there. So, they go looking for "the tool". The couldn't find it. So, they try long ass tweezers, plugging one side of his nose and blowing into his mouth (does any of this sound
familiar) and eventually had to stick a long tube up his nose and suck it out. And all of this because they couldn't find the magic "get the foreign objects out of kids noses" thingee...But guess what, it wasn't over. We had to do it all again because there was still some up there. It took over an hour to get it all out. By the time it was done, his nose was bleeding and he was about to hyperventilate from crying and screaming so much. It was such a nightmare. I don't ever want to have to hold my son down like that again. They made me hold his arms, Daddy had is head, one nurse had his legs, another was helping with his head and the physician was practically on top of him. An experience I hope neither of us has to have again. I can honestly say, I was this close to punching out 3 nurses, a physicians assistant and Daddy. This mom was ready to kick some serious butt.
It's over. He seems fine. In the car ride home, you could tell he was a little mad at me and John, but he soon forgave us. We let him sleep in the big bed with us. The only signs of remembering the ordeal was when he was asleep. He cried out a couple of times and held up his arms, like he was fighting someone off, so I think it's safe to say, he was probably having some dreams about it. But this morning, he was back to his usual self, playing chase in the house and making choo-choo noises. We have to watch him for any signs of breathing problems or fever, just in case some small fragments did make it to his lungs. We go to see his regular doctor tomorrow (at the advice of the ER) so they can just look at him and make sure all is well.
I know one day I'll look back on all of this and laugh, but right now, I'm still ready to bitch-slap someone!!
To the joys of parenthood!!....love ya'll lots....Mommy
- posted by Daddy @ 12:00